The Story Session Synopsis
A Family Affair Zora's curiousity nearly proved fatal in awakening the Water Elemental. Through teamwork, and perhaps a bit of luck, the group proved the stronger. Yet another dilemma befell them in the aftermath; Ferra, and Zora are missing. After licking their wounds, Xara, Kale, Vanity, and Sammeal choose to press on, hoping to uncover what may've happened to their comrades as they delve deeper into the Catacombs of Yintros. During their exploration, however, Vanity was overcome by sickness. It appeared he had been infected by an earlier encounter with some undead creature, and it finally proved fatal... but it was not the end for Vanity. He rose back up, no longer living, and lashed out at his former associates and his half brother Sammeal. Sammeal demanded the other's to leave, and he dealt with his brother alone. With a decisive blow, Sammeal ended Vanity... but did not let him leave this life alone. Unable to bare the loss of his half brother with the mixed emotions of having to take his un-life, he crushed Alchemists fire in his mouth, embracing his brother's mortal coil, and they departed the world together. The smell of burnt flesh begins to fill the various chambers and rooms, the screams of agony fading, only Kale & Xara now remain. Transitions Through a series of transitions, psychologically and physically, the group finds themselves united again... but through Xara'a actions, and Ferra's experiances, a new rift begins to open between the two friends. An old ghost visits Golmath, and sears open old wounds, igniting a churning rage in his heart. Kale has a revelation, the first thing he can recall before Neverwinter, he has a brother. He doesn't have long to ponder on it when Xara suddenly holds him at sword point. Xara's instincts prove true, as Kale reveals himself to be a Doppleganger! Transforming into Golmath, the Doppleganger tries to elimate the group, but it and it's 2 other accomplices were dispatched by Xara, Ferra, Golmath, and Zora. But deeper in Yintros Catacombs, the group now finds themselves searching for the real Kale. Poison It's not long before Golmath discovers a sliding wall. Unsure of how to work the mechanism proves not to hinder the Goliath in the slightest as he smashes down the wall, and the group discovers a bound Kale. The group reunited once again, delves deeper into Yintros, only to run across another creatures with the head of a man, and the body of something between a dragon and an eel. They're able to dispose of it rather quickly, but not before the Banelar injects Golmath with a nasty poison. Golmath survives, but is weakened. The rift between Xara & Ferra seems to continue to grow as they discover a room filled with various items of interest. Seems they stumbled upon a Vault. They don't have long to enjoy the spoils though before their past catches up to them in the form of a halfling as they're confronted by 'Little e' Distractions Xara realizes Emytha 'Little E' Gravel is a Curst, and a little mad to boot, as the Halfling accuses the group of aligning with Corbin. Quickly dispatching the mighty Golmath, and the Ranger Zora, she takes Kale as a hostage, demanding the Shard of Fate. Ferra and Xara do their best to talk her down, but it's a revived Golmath that brings conclusion to the hostage crisis, disarming the Curst Halfing. Parted from her weapon, Emy appears to calm down and finally decides that the group must not have the shard, and tells them to leave before disappearing into the shadows herself to search the catacombs. The Heroes manage to find a way out of Yintros through a series of passages and tunnels leading into Waterdeep's sewer system and back to the surface. Now recooperating, the adventurers discuss their next move. Golmath inquiring about dragons with Ferra, while Kale studies a strange spell book found within the Catacombs, as Xara takes a bit of personal time to put things into perspective... however time is ticking, and her imprisoned Gnome friend, Fender Whistlebag, hasn't much time left before his murder trial begins! A Gnome in Need - The Sundered Xara & Ferra meet with Fender in prison, learning that his legal council has been murdered. Wanting to help their friend, they launch their own investigation on Fender's lawyer, Simon Thimblebottom. Xara inspects the scene of Simon's murder, and meets Frank Tumblebarrel, a Halfling put in charge of Simon's murder investigation. It is through the Halfling that Xara learns that Simon was not only murdered, but any remant of his last few cases is either missing, or has been destroyed. Investigating the home of Simon Thimblebottom, Ferra finds it ransacked, but manages to stumble across a hidden compartment in a desk, and finds a note in a language she cannot decypher, and seeks out Kale's assistance. Kale easily is able to read the Halfling language, revealing it to be a memo that simply said: Smuggler's Dock. After questioning a few locals, they find this is the same place that Simon was murdered. Kale sets out on his own to inspect Simon's corpse for any other clues, and meets up with Xara whom has spent the night at the Gray Griffon tavern, and found herself to be robbed. Together he shares the information about the note Ferra discovered, and they head back to re-investigate the murder scene. Ferra & Golmath arrive at the Smuggler's Dock before them, and discover something in the water beneath it. Ferra, nearly drowning, attempts to retrieve whatever is hidden beneath the water, and is saved by Golmath, who was than able to pull the chest on land. Opening the chest, they discover a stash of Simon's case notes, proving Fender's innocence, a map, and a piece of evidence: A mask... Cyrzat's old mask. The revelation stuns Kale, but the others dont have much time to ponder on it, as they rush back to free Fender. Meeting with a magistrate and providing the evidence, Fender's appeal to the Hidden Lords of Waterdeep is cancelled as the Gnome is set free. Saving Fender seems to have an overwhelming impact on Ferra, improving her mood vastly and leading to the Assimar's reconciling with each other. Headed back to the tavern, Xara, Ferra, and Golmath discuss their next move, and what to do with the Shard of Fate. As they argue, a knock comes as the door, and they open it to find Kale, escorting a drunken Arthrogar whom he found passed out. Arthrogar passes out again trying in vain to order more Ale, which Ferra responds in kind and leaves to order a few drinks. Arthrogaris placed in bed by the Goliath, as the others feel they should discuss the Shard elsewhere, Golmath volunteers the idea of killing Arthrogate right there. Xara and Kale both disagree, the Assimar and Kale for multiple reasons, but the strongest both fearing the consequences they may face should Corbin find out. Xara approached Golmath, to ask him to come to Kale's room to discuss the shard, when suddenly the Goliath became enraged, as memories of his own past surged forth, and he attempted to crush the helpless dwarf with his great hammer. Without a second thought, Xara dives in the way, shielding the Dwarf with her own body, which is badly cripples from the blow, breaking her wing, and seriously wounding the Assimar, just as Ferra returns, to see Golmath crushing her friend and goes into shock. Kale attempts to subdue Golmath with a sleep spell, but the Goliath puts up a wall of rage, and fights off the affects. Attempting to pull Xara off Arthrogar, Golmath is successful, but Xara does everything she can to hinder him, and they become entangled. The disturbance draws the tavern's attention, and the guards are called. Arriving they attempt to split up the two, as Golmath begins punching Xara over and over, attempting to knock her out. Horrified, Ferra looks on, as Kale finally takes action, involking a spell, he is able to switch places with the Goliath. Ferra's psyche shatters in view of all this and she drops to the floor. Golmath's rage consumes him with the realization that magic was used on him against his will, the memories of what the Thayan wizards had put them through surging to the forfront of his mind, he brings his fury down on Kale, crippling the wizard. Continuing to vent his fury, Golmath's original goal set back in his sights as he prepares to destroy Arthrogar in his sleep. Barely consious, Xara draws on the Holy power within her, and with a kiss sends waves of healing power into Kale, awakening him. Preparing to crush the Dwarf, Golmath raises his Great Hammer, and than Cyrzat appears as if from nowhere, looking far more fiendish than when he was last seen, his wings even restored, he quickly dispatches Golmath, paralizing and incompacitating the Goliath. The guardsman find themselves overwhelmed, between the fight they've been attempting to break up, and than the appearance of what looks to be a demon, they quickly retreat to find reinforcements. With a few parting words, Cyrzat takes broken-willed Ferra and drunk sleeping Arthrogar and disappears. As Golmath remains paralyzed on his knees. Weakly standing, Kale tries to help Xara up, embracing each other, Xara cries into his chest, as Kale looks onwards, hopelessness and a lost look forming on his face. Through the Rabbit Hole Overcome with pain, and grief, Xara raises her blade to the helpless Golmath. She feels a rage boiling within and for a second has some insight into what Golmath may've been feeling... but the rage overwhelms her and she takes the Goliath's life. The guards return with a Magister who also appears to have some experiance with spells. He hold Kale & Xara in the room interrogating them, and with Xara admitting she killed Golmath, takes her into custody. Meanwhile below the rooms, on the main floor over the tavern, two people observe the unfolding events. A roguish red haired woman named Gwendalyn, and a glass-eyed man named Kisho. As Xara is escorted away, she and her guards comes across a large group of people entering through the gates of the city. Xara immediately recongized them as the villagers they had saved from the cleric testing various toxins upon. They learn the village was destroyed in a great storm and the surviving townsfolk had journeyed to waterdeep for sanctuary. A familur face arrives, turning out to be the Halfling investigator that Xara had met previously. Frank vouches for Xara, and she is set free as Kale arrives. They begin to talk about what they went through and their next move when they're approached by Kisho & Gwen. Angered by Kisho, Kale & Xara turn to leave... when something comes over them. Kale realizes that Kisho wants help. His father had been murdered and beheaded, and Kisho was trying to find his father's killer. Xara & Kale knew exactly who Kisho was looking for: Cyrzat. Deciding to work together, to find Cyrzat, and uncover more about the Shards of Fate, the four left, and went to Kisho's home between the Castle & Dock ward. It was here they decided to follow the only lead they had, a map found in the chest from earlier, the one that had the documents that freed Fender Whistlebag. The map lead them to the City of the Dead, the grave ward in waterdeep. They discovered a masolium with a sarcophogus which became animated and spoke to them. Kisho attempted to bypass whatever trick their was to opening the sarcophogus and instead set off a trap. Nearly stuck in horrible illusions, Kale manages to t'wart the spell, freeing them all. They soon found the trick to opening the vault, and stepped into the errie black void within. Arriving safely, the four suspect they're nolonger on their on plane. They stumble across bizarre scenes, a dead Sasquatch gripping a piece of cylinder shaped wood. An old shack, leading down into some type of crypt... which they discovered belonged to a Mind Flayer, this place being the spot for an experiment. Kisho smashed an orb inside, and the energy it set free reanimated the dead within. With Xara calling on the power of Nobanion, the undead proved no match against them. The Illithid proved more of a challenge, even turning Kale against the party, but after wounding it, and even setting it aflame, the Mind Flayer retreated. Leaving the underground crypt, the group pressed on to a tower they could see in the far off distance... upon arriving to discover that the tower was on a piece of land, but floated high in the sky, a massive crater beneath it. Discovering a damanged suspended bridge system, the group figured out how to get across. Within the tower, they discovered a chest containing a Book, and a Shard of Fate. They also found clues that the previous occupant may have been a bit escentric, and even somewhat incompentant, as various trap spells were triggered, but had strange effects, more likely unintended. Part of one of these mis-fired opened a portal that lead back to the masolium. They group discussed the Shard, and decided to goto the tavern where Arthrogar was to see if they could find any more clues as to other Shards, or even the events that took place after their encounter with Cyrzat. Meeting the Dwarf, they discover he has no memory of that night at all. Arty also has a guest, a large man, with long hair, raven black, in even blacker armor. The man says little and departs. The group discusses things with Arthrogar... and Kisho attempts to use his power to intrude on Arthrogar's mind. Not only is he surprised the Dwarf resists him, but also immediately understands Kisho's psionic power, and how it was used on him. The Dwarf banishes Kisho from the room, and any future dealings. The rest of the group leaves to retrieve the other Shard they seem to have misplaced. With the two are returned to Arthrogar, he agrees to give them a lead to the next possible Shard location. Gwen, Kale, Kisho, and Xara return to Kisho's home to reflect on everything that has happened, and decide where to go from there.